Method and system for advertising and managing one or more vacation rental properties worldwide via a network

Abstract

A method and system for finding, browsing, managing, booking, rating and advertising vacation rental properties worldwide via a network such as the Internet composed of a renter reservation system, an owner management system and a plurality affiliates or publishers of Internet content established to provide goods and/or services to prospective renters and/or vacation rental property owners and works in a client/server environment by receiving, storing and tracking data associated with a vacation rental property owner, the vacation rental property itself, reservation and guest information and rental property listing click-throughs from a client system and assigns a unique identifier to each in a centralized relational database.

1 . A method and system for advertising, finding, browsing, managing, booking and leasing one or more real vacation rental properties from a remote location via a network such as the Internet, said method and system comprising:
 a renter system and method associated with a short-term renter who desires to find, browse, inquire about, lease or make a future reservation at a real vacation rental property suited to the needs of said renter, said renter system coupled to said network;   an affiliate system and method associated with an affiliate configured to provide advertising of goods or services to said renter and/or said vacation rental; placing on web pages of said affiliate websites embedded HTML forms that are submitted by said renters to request information about said vacation rental properties; said affiliate system coupled to said network;   an owner system and method associated with an owner (or authorized agent) of said vacation rental property allowing said owner to manage and track information pertaining to: bookings, renters, tasks (e.g. housekeeping and deposit refunds), payments and expenses for said vacation rental property, to market and advertise said vacation rental property on said affiliate websites, and to screen said renters based on their rental history and to provide them with a rating; said owner system coupled to said network;   a vendor system and method associated with a vendor or service provider configured to provide goods and/or services (e.g. maintenance, housekeeping or concierge services) to said vacation rental property owner, said vendor system coupled to said network;   a search system for determining which of a number of vacation rental properties are both available and suited to the needs of said renter;   a booking system for making a booking and payment for a specified time-slot for said vacation rental property online and in real-time;   a rating system for assigning a predefined and universally understandable rating (e.g. 3 out of 4 stars) to said renter and said vacation rental property;   a server configured to electronically communicate over said network with said renter, said owner, said affiliate and said vendor;   storing, in said server, a set of specific server scripts that are selectively used to generate specific web pages;   and a relational database operatively coupled to said server.   
     
     
         2 . The method and system of  claim 1 , including means for determining which of a number of vacation rental properties are both available and suited to the needs of said renter comprising:
 (a) a property relational database for storing a plurality of variable attributes related to said vacation rental properties to enable rapid searching and retrieval of available properties having certain desired attributes;   (b) means for inputting to said property database a search query of certain variable attributes to search a plurality of said vacation rental properties (including but not limited to certain desirable amenities, cost, availability and geographic location);   (c) means for comparing the attributes of each said property in said property database with the inputted search query;   (d) means for displaying (either by geographic location on a dynamic map or in a list) all properties in said property database that match said search query.   
     
     
         3 . The method and system of  claim 2 , wherein step (a) includes predetermining for each of the said vacation rental properties certain attributes such as, but not limited to, amenities, cost, availability and location, step (b) includes fields representative of all the information obtained in step (b) related to said attributes and step (c) includes extracting from said relational database information pertaining to the vacation rental properties which match said attributes. 
     
     
         4 . The method and system of  claim 2 , wherein the search results screen includes relevant information about said vacation rental properties which match said needs including, but not limited to, location, cost, availability, amenities, contact information, image files, video files and text; said search results screen may be in the form of a web page. 
     
     
         5 . The method and system of  claim 2 , wherein said search results screen may optionally include a hyperlink for each of said vacation rental properties that will direct said renter to either another screen containing more information for said vacation rental property or to a predetermined web address. 
     
     
         6 . The method and system of  claim 2 , including means enabling the search results to be updated and redisplayed according to a change in the desired attributes. 
     
     
         7 . The method and system of  claim 1 , including means for making a booking and facilitating payment for a specified time-slot for a selected vacation rental property online and in real-time comprising:
 (a) a booking relational database for storing a plurality of variable attributes related to bookings and payments for each vacation rental property;   (b) an owner booking module configured to enable owners to manage and change the status of bookings and to create new bookings for renters not making bookings over the Internet, to create and send electronic invoices for payments for said bookings and to track said payments;   (c) and a renter booking module configured to enable a renter to book a renter-initiated booking for an available time-slot at the selected vacation rental property and to facilitate online payments via a third party payment processing provider, such as PayPal.com.   
     
     
         8 . The method and system of  claim 7 , including means for dynamically generating a hyperlink that can be copied and pasted into electronic communications (such as email and the like) which when clicked directs the renter to said Internet booking module for a predetermined arrival and departure date; said hyperlink contains variable identification values such as a unique property identification number (stored in said property relational database), an arrival date value (e.g. checkin=mm/dd/yy) and length of stay value measured in days. 
     
     
         9 . A method and system of  claim 7 , including means for automatically determining availability and cost information given said unique property identification number, said arrival date and said length of stay values and to facilitate online payments for said cost by coordinating with a third party payment processing provider, such as PayPal.com. 
     
     
         10 . A method and system of  claim 7 , wherein bookings have an associated variable status field; booking status field options include, but are not limited to: confirmed, unconfirmed, held, inquiry, declined, cancelled, and referral. 
     
     
         11 . A method and system of  claim 7 , including means for said owner to elevate or demote said status of said booking and to electronically notify (for example, a change on the renter booking module and/or sending an email) said renter of said change in status. 
     
     
         12 . A method and system of  claim 7 , wherein the change in said status of said booking results in prompting said owner for additional information pertaining to said booking, for example a change in status from unconfirmed to confirmed may prompt said owner for the input of payment information for said booking. 
     
     
         13 . A method and system of  claim 7 , wherein if said booking status is updated to status declined, said booking data is duplicated in said booking relational database for each vacation rental property which matches said renter's original said search query; said duplicated bookings are changed to status referral; said duplicated bookings are updated to become associated with said matching vacation rental properties; owners of said properties are electronically notified of said referral bookings. 
     
     
         14 . A method and system of  claim 7 , wherein said renter-initiated booking is initially saved in said booking database with status unconfirmed. 
     
     
         15 . A method and system of  claim 7 , including means for facilitating payment from said renter to said owner via electronic communication (e.g. passing variables to a program residing on a server) over said network with a third party payment processing provider (e.g. PayPal.com) and transferred from said renter's account into said owner's account automatically; said payment processor coupled to said network. 
     
     
         16 . A method and system of  claim 7 , including means for electronically notifying (for example via email) said owner over said network of said booking. 
     
     
         17 . A method and system of  claim 7 , wherein existing bookings with a status of confirmed or held are automatically reflected on said vacation rental property's availability calendar and are unavailable for renter-initiated bookings. 
     
     
         18 . A method and system of  claim 7 , wherein a change in status of said booking to status confirmed results in the automatic update of said vacation rental property's availability calendar to reflect said confirmed booking. 
     
     
         19 . A method and system of  claim 1 , wherein a unique identification number is assigned to each new row of data in said relational database in order to facilitate tracking.